‘Any Song’ Gate: How one song disrupted the fabric of K-pop forever
In 2020, South Korean rapper Zico posted a casual dance video to promote his new song, and the first K-pop TikTok dance challenge was born
Zico's #AnySongChallenge in 2020 changed the music industry forever.
Photos via TikTok/@kozico0914; graphic by Ryan Quan
Words by Natalia Kabenge
It’s no secret that TikTok dance challenges have become a fundamental part of the K-pop industry. In the six years they’ve been around, they’ve proven to be a worthy investment—and it’s all thanks to Block B member Zico.
On Jan. 13, 2020, the rapper released “Any Song,” a genre-bending upbeat pop anthem. Lyrically trivial yet melodically entrancing, the song made its way to the number one spot on Billboard’s K-pop Hot 100 chart the week of its release, undoubtedly crowning it the earworm of its era. Just days before the song’s official release, Zico took to TikTok and posted a 48-second video alongside MAMAMOO’s Hwasa. Dressed in black tie attire, the pair danced to the chorus of “Any Song” side by side, presumably in the waiting room of an event—an inherently casual attempt at generating some social media buzz.
What took less than a minute to record quickly proved itself to be an exponentially favorable investment. The video, to date, has garnered more than 13.7 million views—and that was only the beginning. Zico went on to film follow up videos with a handful of idols, including soloist Chung Ha (which boasts 25.9 million views to date), and less than a week later, the “#anysongchallenge” completely took off. Members of groups like AB6IX, ASTRO, and Weki Meki took to TikTok to post their own versions of the challenge, further expanding its reach. Fans also joined in on the trend, posting their own renditions of the original video and tagging it with Zico’s hashtag. And thus, the K-pop dance challenge trend was born.
The video that started it all proved to be the exact recipe for success: a couple of familiar faces, simple choreography, and a catchy song. Years later, the K-pop dance challenge has evolved into yet another business, complete with high-end production and intense marketing strategies, and the nuances of its success run much deeper than just a trend.
Fans are loving the interactions
Over the years, collaboration on TikTok between artists like BTS’s Jungkook and LE SSERAFIM, EXO’s Kai and TWICE’s Momo, and TXT’s Yeonjun and KATSEYE have garnered millions of likes and an overall positive response from fans. “I think it's really fun,” K-pop fan Angel Polito says. Polito, full-time BTS ARMY and host of the K-pop podcast K-ALL, quite enjoys seeing her favorite artists interact. “Watching them have that community by being able to share their choreography with one another, it's really like an enhancement to the fan experience,” she continues.
Polito’s account is one of many that has helped to affirm that these dance challenges aren’t just a fad—fans gain satisfaction from seeing their favorite artists together. However, she notes that the dynamic of the collaborations are important, as most fans are aware that these challenges are more than just fun videos—they’ve become a business.
These subtleties don’t go unnoticed for most. While it’s true that a TikTok filmed with two megastars is always guaranteed to make waves, it’s also true that some of the most popular K-pop dance challenge videos have an added element that draws viewers in: emotion.
“You don't want those interactions to feel like it's not genuine, (or) it's something that they're forced to do,” Polito explains. Challenges filmed between idols who are known friends (Zico and Hwasa, for example) or those who are regarded as the industry’s prime dance talent (e.g. Kai and Momo) are more widely appreciated because they don’t require in-depth knowledge about either artist. Instead, interactions like these reaffirm the fact that idols are human and also enjoy making fun TikToks with their friends. However, the positive responses begin to dwindle once fans begin seeing through the facade, shares Polito. “There's a fine line between the business aspect of it and then the fun component.”
What are the numbers saying?
The K-pop dance challenge didn’t take long to transition into a marketing tool, and it's now woven itself into the industry’s cultural fabric. But are these challenges actually beneficial? Music industry professional Clayton Durant, a partner at music management company CAD Management, crunched some numbers for JoySauce to see if these challenges actually have an impact on streaming numbers and, consequently, brand visibility.
After taking a look at a handful of the most popular challenges over the last six years, Durant argues that the impact of K-pop dance challenges has fundamentally changed—and the data supports this.
Per the data, as of January, Zico’s “Any Song” sits at more than 820.3 million total streams, and during the challenge window—the period when it had the most engagement on TikTok (defined as January to mid-March 2020)—it earned 37.1 percent of its total streams. This is a considerable amount that can be attributed to TikTok, demonstrating the app’s mission of advancing music discovery. Songs like “Super Shy” by NEWJEANS and “BOUNCY (K-Hot Chilli Peppers)” by ATEEZ display a similar pattern with 27 percent and 28.8 percent of their total streams accumulating during the TikTok trend window, respectively.
A clear outlier is “Gnarly” by KATSEYE, which began its trend window in April 2025 and accumulated 85.6 percent of its total streams during this period. However, this window was extended until November that same year, likely due to a renewed interest in the group following their history-making Lollapalooza performance. Lastly, “GO!” by CORTIS proves to follow the later trend of higher engagement and overall streams during the trend window, sitting at 51.4 percent. However, it’s important to note that “GO!” may be too new to truly conclude that TikTok’s influence has caused such a significant jump in streams.
So what exactly are these numbers saying? Though recent releases like “Gnarly” and “GO!” appear to be outliers, the data from older songs still prove that these challenges are substantially pushing streaming numbers in a positive direction. “Any Song,” “Super Shy,” and “BOUNCY” average about 31 percent of total song streams accrued while the dance challenge was trending on TikTok—almost a third of total streams to date.
Durant says TikTok has visibly evolved from a discovery catalyst into a “core consumption environment.” The proof is in the pudding: K-pop dance challenges have irrefutably propelled engagement forward, aiding in overall visibility and streaming numbers globally.
Notably, many of these artists’ pre-TikTok releases sit at around the same streaming numbers as some of their current tracks, but have taken more time to do so. For example, ATEEZ’s 2018 track “Say My Name” is among their most popular and boasts 110 million Spotify streams to date. However, it took the song an extra four years to almost break even with “BOUNCY,” which is another one of their most popular songs (sitting at 177 million Spotify streams to date) and was heavily supported by its TikTok challenge in 2023. With the knowledge that these older releases didn’t have TikTok to help them gain traction, this information helps strengthen the argument for TikTok as a marketing tool, irrefutably proving that the app has helped propel songs to the mainstream.
The downsides of dance challenges
There are still a handful of downsides to the prevalence of dance challenges, and most of them are reflected in the investments they require. While older videos were generally low stakes, often filmed on an idol’s phone with a famous friend or two, recent videos have much higher production value. It isn’t uncommon for managers to rehearse camera work to film, utilizing gimbal stabilizers to ensure steady camerawork.
The biggest investment, however, is the time and energy required to churn out challenge after challenge. In 2024, Zico acknowledged his influence on the trend, offering an informal apology on the South Korean news outlet News1, according to NME. He explained that idols typically utilized their free time before music shows to rest or rehearse and expressed remorse for adding another task to their already busy schedules. “Every artist has to learn each other’s choreography,” he explained, apologizing for causing this predicament.
With the knowledge that these challenges are a strong marketing tool, but come at the cost of what little free time idols already have, opinions on K-pop dance challenges continue to remain rather polarizing. But overall, the benefits seem to outweigh the drawbacks.
Polito, who has been a K-pop fan since 2019, has particularly enjoyed seeing the creative evolution of K-pop dance challenges, citing the sign language aspect of BTS’s “Permission to Dance” challenge as an example. She notes there’s a strong sense of community when fans get to feel like they’re a part of the media ecosystem that K-pop groups curate. “Fans become co-creators alongside the artist,” she explains. She acknowledges the strong marketing aspect, but also notes that it’s “something that allows the fans to connect with one another and to engage.”
Her only hopes moving forward are that future dance challenges maintain their authenticity, returning to the relaxed atmosphere of Zico and Hwasa’s original challenge. “I do think that it would be good moving forward for the groups to, if they don’t already, have a little bit more autonomy in selecting the dances that they want to participate in,” she says. “You can definitely see the dynamic between the performers who actually enjoy doing it, and I think in those senses it could be quite nice to see.”
Published on March 25, 2026
Words by Natalia Kabenge
Natalia Kabenge is a music and culture writer and concert photographer based in New York City. As a first-generation Ugandan-American, her musical interests extend to every corner of the world—some of her favorite genres are RnB, Afrobeats, Metal, and K-Pop. She is currently pursuing a major in Journalism and a minor in Japanese studies at The New School, and has had the opportunity to cover talent such as ATEEZ, Pink Sweat$, P1Harmony, and Travis Japan. Instagram: @nataliakabenge, Twitter/X: @talia__michelle
Art by Ryan Quan
Ryan Quan is JoySauce's social media manager, associate editor, and all-around visual eye. This queer, half-Chinese, half-Filipino writer and graphic designer loves everything related to music, creative nonfiction, and art. Based in Brooklyn, he spends most of his time dancing to hyperpop and accidentally falling asleep on the subway. Follow him on Instagram at @ryanquans, and check out his work on his website.